South African Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba makes it clear that while the Jewish community is under no particular threat, the department of state security takes seriously its mandate to protect the country’s citizens.

Lawyers are preparing criminal and civil charges following one of the darkest weeks of anti-Semitism in South Africa. There have been a slew of vile incidents that sent shock waves through the community.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

Dr Ali Bacher, former South African cricket captain and administrator, was one of the five recipients of the 2018 Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SA Sport Awards held in Bloemfontein on Sunday night.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

Late on Tuesday, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. While at the time of writing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had still not confirmed the existence of such a truce, Israeli citizens living in the south of the country were told they could return home and to “normalcy”.

The Israeli gymnastics team was out in full force at 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that began at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. There are five males and two females in the team headed by new Israeli sensation Artem Dolgopyat. The others are Alexander Shatilov, Ilan Korchak, Andrey Medvedev, and Michael Sorokine, while the women are Ofir Netzer and Meitar Lavy.

As I was heading home on Tuesday, I heard on ChaiFM that 460 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since late Sunday. That is an outrageous number. If every one of them hit inhabited areas, thousands of Israelis would have been killed.

“The president is not directly responsible for acts of domestic terrorism, but he should be more careful with his language.” That’s the way the Economist headlined its report on the horrific Pittsburgh killings just more than two weeks ago.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Bark Mitzvah at dog laundry

Only in America… this ad for a "Pet Laundrette" claims it can meet all a pet-owner's "Bark Mitzvah Needs"!

by
ANT KATZ | Oct 15, 2013

Sarah, a regular user and contributor who lives in the US, couldn't help sending the Jewish Report a copy of an advert she saw on Monday. “I'm out in Portland this week and saw this ad in the local Jewish Life Oregon magazine,” she e-mailed. “I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Hashem should be more important to us.”

Sarah offered that she had “kept the mag, and can probably get a better photo/scan when I'm home later today. Shavua tov.”

“Yes, please!” was our immediate responds. This was just the type of story we were looking for to kick off our new website’s content section called Our Whacky Jewish World.

True to her word, Sarah duly scanned and sent us the Jewish Life Oregon advert. SEE IT BELOW STORY or DOWNLOAD PDF which we have put on SAJR.co.za so you can save or print it – and even e-mail it to your family and friends. “I know it is tongue in cheek,” wrote Sarah today, “but nevertheless it does leave me a little speechless… kippah and tallis seems a little sacrilegious to me,” the frum user told us.

Sarah, who has a famously sharp sense of humour, said she’d “love to see the self-service pet wash. Maybe that's the miracle. Does the dog get a paw-friendly bottle of shampoo and do the washing all by itself, or are humans needed?”

As if that wasn’t enough mirth, she postulated: “Is the bark mitzvah age measured in dog years? Is this the moment they move from puppy to adult? I'm guessing this dog doesn't shave?”

The company, called Beauty For The Beast, says it can meet all a pet-owner's "Bark Mitzvah Needs" and even offers a "pet laundrette" service.

Their wares include Jewish dog toys, like a fluffy sheep doll with "BAA MITZVAH" embroidered on the side - and even kipot and talitot to suit all sizes of pet heads.

We circulated the advert to some other readers in the US and Jessica, another SA expat who attends a Chabad Shul in LA, replied: “Cute. We were at Shul on a Friday night a couple years ago and a woman came to say Kaddish for her dog who had recently died!”